Timeline

“I was surprised how little I was going to get for a piece that would appear in print and online,” the journalist told the training centre.

According to the London Journalism Centre survey, other titles pay “considerably more”.

It said The Guardian pays 31p a word (£310 per thousand) , The Times 30p a word (£300 per thousand) and the Telegraph 40p a word (£400 per thousand).

The training centre reports Independent deputy managing editor Sean O’Grady as saying that pay “varies a huge amount”, adding that some contributors, such as politicians, were sometimes not paid at all

The figures were obtained by phoning the newspapers and asking what rates they would pay for freelance feature submissions. In addition to the broadsheets, The Sun told the centre it would pay £750 for a page-lead article.